Maxi desperately shook her head. “You are…n-nothing like her. You will…never be miserable. I will…I will be back before you know it. And then…I will never…leave again. Ever…I swear.”
“I am at my limit.”
Maxi froze as she gazed at his stony face. Only his coal-black eyes showed pain.
“All this time I’ve wanted you…it felt like I was standing on burning coals. Do you have any idea what that means? I had to keep moving. Never sitting, never pausing. Always…always on the run, through a hellfire that might never end.”
His raspy voice was strained with exhaustion. Only then did Maxi realize just how gaunt his face had become over the last few days.
He ran a hand over his haggard face. “I…want to be free of this pain now.”
“Riftan…I…”
Maxi opened and closed her mouth, at a loss how to respond. The reddish light filtering through the window cast Riftan’s face in gloomy shadow.
“If you leave,” he choked, “I’ll no longer wait for you.”
He continued when Maxi did not answer.
“I’ll stop thinking about you. This time, I’ll wipe you from my mind. I’ll stop making myself miserable.”
Maxi gaped at him, stunned.
He grabbed her forearm and stared directly into her eyes. Putting heavy emphasis on each word, he said, “Will you still leave me, then?”
All the air had been squeezed from her lungs. His black eyes held a warning—that this was the last time he would try to stop her. Maxi faltered and made to back away, but his grip remained vise-like on her arm.
Like a fish out of water, Maxi gaped noiselessly. Her heart pounded, and her throat stung as though she had swallowed glass. Her teeth chattered as she feebly repeated her words over and over like a parrot.
“I-I’ll come back. I’ll come back to you…no matter what, s-so—”
The last glimpse of light in Riftan’s eyes faded. Faced with the desolation in his gaze, Maxi found herself unable to continue.
Riftan slowly released her wrist. “Fine.”
Although she was the one who had tried to break away first, seeing him withdraw his hand felt like she was being abandoned in the freezing snow.
His hollow voice echoed around the room. “Then…go. To wherever it is you want…”
With that, he stood as if to indicate that there was nothing more to discuss. Maxi stood paralyzed, her face ashen, as Riftan walked over to the table. She leaped to her feet when he picked up a new goblet.
As she reached for him, he backed away and barked, “Don’t touch me!”
Maxi flinched, her eyes wide with shock.
Riftan glared at her as he snarled like a wounded beast, “If you touch me now, I’ll never let you go. I’ll keep you by my side by force if I have to. If that’s not what you want…”
He took a step toward her, and Maxi instinctively shrank back.
“…get the hell out of here right now.”
Maxi did not answer. She could only stand there trembling like a leaf.
“Don’t think for a minute that you’re leaving for my sake,” Riftan growled. “I never wanted this. You’re leaving…for you.”
Maxi stood as immobile as a nail hammered into a doorframe. Haltingly, almost without realizing it, she turned around on shaky legs. It felt like a knife was cutting into her flesh at every step.
She stared blankly at the long shadow extending from her feet. Though she wanted to look back, she was too afraid. She paused for a moment, as still as a statue, before stepping into the dark corridor.
